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While some Latin American superstars have overcome discrimination to
strike gold in baseball's big leagues, thousands more Latin American players never
make it to "The Show." Stealing Lives focuses on the plight of one Venezuelan
teenager and documents abuses that take place against Latin children and young men
as baseball becomes a global business. The authors reveal that in their efforts to
secure cheap labor, Major League teams often violate the basic human rights of
children.

As a young boy growing up in Venezuela, Alexis Quiroz
dreamed of playing in the Major Leagues. Alexis's dreams were like those of
thousands of other boys in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, and Major League
teams encouraged such dreams by recruiting Latin children as young as 10 and 11
years old. Determined to become a big league player, Alexis finished high school
early and dedicated himself to landing a contract with a Major League team. Alexis
signed with the Chicago Cubs in 1995 at age 17 and then began a harrowing ordeal of
exploitation, mistreatment, and disrespect at the hands of the Chicago Cubs,
including playing for the Cubs' Dominican Summer League team in appalling living
conditions. Alexis's baseball career came to an abrupt end by an injury for which
the Cubs provided no adequate medical treatment. The story continues, however, with
Alexis's pursuit of justice in the United States to ensure that other Venezuelan and
Dominican boys do not encounter similar experiences.

What happened
to Alexis is not an isolated case-Major League teams routinely deny Latin children
and young men the basic protections that their U.S. counterparts take for granted.
This exploitation violates international legal standards on labor standards and the
human rights of children. Stealing Lives concludes by analyzing various reforms to
redress the inequities big league baseball creates in its globalization.